I‘m 44, IC turned first-line manager and back to IC (several times) and now quite happy in the IC role, occupied with difficult, large-impact projects that span

I‘m 44, IC turned first-line manager and back to IC (several times) and now quite happy in the IC role, occupied with difficult, large-impact projects that span multiple teams and require roadmaps for 1-2 years. I have learned a great deal in the past several years - even at 40 I would not have been up to the challenges I‘m dealing with now. Most importantly, how to reach agreement with different stakeholders on decisions where you have insufficient data. That‘s where making an argument comes in. You weigh different alternatives. You show the consequences. You conduct workshops - where in the end the people might have gone through the same thinking process you have gone through, but now they are buying in to the idea. You learn to manage up and across. You learn when to step back. Where you should let others shine and enable them making a career. And become a mentor. You learn how to take risks. That you need to balance high-risk, high-reward projects with quick, short term wins. That you need to find out how to do both at the same time. One securing the funding for the other. You learn that relationship power always trumps knowledge power and power through authority. You learn to get to know people as human beings and learn about their motivations. You become a servant of the team, filling in the gaps where they exist. Because you can. I‘m still writing code as well, as I have since I was in my teens. Still loving it. Writing a piece of code that solves a difficult problem in a beautiful way makes me high.